Understanding Diversities

Diversity can be defined as the inclusion of individuals representing more than one national origin, colour, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, exceptional abilities, disabilities etc. 

Diversity usually is related to the ethnic background of students. It is, however, a much broader concept. Anytime a student is different from the rest of the students in a class, that student is diverse. 

Learning diversity means valuing the differences between people and the ways in which those differences can contribute to a richer, more creative and more productive working environment. 

• The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect.

• Understand that each individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences. 

• It is the exploration of these differences in a safe, positive and nurturing environment. 

Understanding diversity means to comprehend that each individual is unique. It also means to recognise our individual differences along the dimension of race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, ideologies etc. 

Characteristics of Diversity - 

Having a diverse group of students simply means recognizing that all the people are unique in their own way. 

Their differences could consist of - 

• Socio-economic differences

• Cultural differences

• Gender differences

• Sexual preference differences

• Developmental differences - 

  • Mental Growth 

  • Motor skills and abilities

  • Physical Growth 

  • Moral Development 

• Personality differences - 

  • Easy or flexible children 

  • Difficult, active or feisty children

  • Slow to warm up or cautious children

• Learning and thinking styles differences - 

  • Sensory preferences - One or more types of sensory inputs 

  • Visual learners - Diagrams, Illustrations, Videos, Charts etc. 

  • Auditory learners- Lectures, Discussion etc. 

  • Tactile/Kinesthetic learners - Learning by doing

• Interest differences

• Exceptional abilities or Special needs - 

  • Gifted and talented learners 

  • Underachievers 

  • Handicapped or Challenged children 

  • ADHD - Attention deficient hyperactivity disorder 

  • Communication disorders - speech, language and hearing 

  • Learning disabilities

Disabilities and Its Types 

The team disability is very much associated with the terms like impairment and handicap and that is why we quite often hear the teams like physical impairment, physical disability and physical handicap for addressing the deficiency, deficits and incapacity of an individual associated with his physical growth and development. 

These three terms have a perfect linear relationship in the following manner -
Impairment → Disability → Handicap 

Disability refers to the state of a person in which he faces some sort of incapacity or inability to adjust and progress well in his environment on account of one or the other serious impairment brought out by a sort of disturbance or abnormality in the structure and functioning of his body system including psyche. 

Disabilities can be categorized in the following types - 

1. Physical disabilities - Visual disability, Hearing disability, Locomotor disability, Speech disorder etc. 

2. Mental disabilities - Mental retardation, Neurological disorder. 

3. Disabilities related to emotional disturbance 

4. Learning disabilities - Dyslexia, Dyscalculia 

5. Multiple disabilities